One of my good friends went through a day of stress worrying that her son might be depressed if his “prom proposal” wasn’t accepted. Obviously, “Will you go to the prom with me?” is no longer good enough. Apparently, there is a great deal of competition to come up with unique and creative ways to ask a girl to the prom. It sounds more like a marriage proposal to me. Yuck!
I can only imagine how many fake proposals I would have received when I was in high school just so everyone could laugh and make bets on if I would accept or not. Parents and kids don’t need more stress, but it seems the prom proposal is a big thing. My friend’s son received a positive response, so everything went well for him, but I can only imagine the disasters that occur during this time of year. Hurt feelings times 10!
Somehow this reminds me of the old days when teacher evaluations turned ugly. Teachers did it to themselves. In efforts to wow principals, teachers stepped it up to prepare for that amazing lesson that would rate them higher than high. It became so competitive that principals no longer valued “good strong lessons” but expected something over the top. I remember a principal telling me just that when she only gave me an “ok” review. Sure enough, I stepped it up just like everybody else. Looking back, I wish I had remained true to myself.